The Virgin Islands Lacrosse Association was recognized as a member of World Lacrosse in November 2020, and subsequently the Pan-American Lacrosse Association (P.A.L.A) before the end of the same year. Now, the team will be participating in the P.A.L.A. Sixes Cup, its first appearance in an international tournament, during the Labor Day weekend.
Along with the Virgin Islands, the tournament will feature Puerto Rico, Peru, Panama and two teams from Colombia (blue and yellow). It will take place in Auburndale, Florida from Sept. 3-5.
The tournament will include a round-robin style seeding round, where each team will play every other team once to determine who will advance to the semifinals.
On Friday, the Virgin Islands will play four games starting at 8:00 a.m. against Puerto Rico. The USVI will play Peru at 11:00 a.m., Panama at 2:00 p.m. and Colombia (blue) at 5 p.m. On Saturday, the USVI's final game of the seeding round will take place at 8:00 a.m. vs. Colombia (yellow).
The top four teams in the standings at the end of the seeding round will play in the semifinals of the tournament on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The fifth and sixth placed teams will play in the fifth place game at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The bronze medal game will take place at 9:00 a.m. Sunday between the two losers of the semifinals, and the P.A.L.A. Sixes Cup Championship game will take place at 3 p.m.
The Virgin Islands Lacrosse Association finished second in a men’s league tournament in June and used the tournament as a tryout to select the roster for the Labor Day Weekend tournament, and the PALA Men’s World Qualifiers next summer.
The USVILA roster for the PALA Sixes Cup:
Field Players: Scott Hutchens, Pedro Alvarado, Matt Williams, Tyler Peworchik, Mike Murray, Teddy Bettencourt, Lamont Sweeney, Noel Regalado, Kyle Murphy, Ryan Meade, Ben Duhoski